RESOLVED: That the Minutes of
the meeting held on 27 August 2015 be approved as a correct record
and signed subject to the following resolution being inserted under
Minute 9, Resolution 2 – Appointment of Substitutes to
Sub-Committees:-

It was proposed by Councillor Burton and seconded by Councillor Cox
that the Committee would appoint up to 5 named substitutes for
Sub-Committees from the Members or Substitute Members of the
Committee.

Voting: For:
11

Substantive motion carried.

RESOLVED: That the Committee
will appoint up to 5 named substitutes for Sub-Committees from the
Members or Substitute Members of the Committee.

Voting:For
: 11

By way of an update to
the minutes of the last meeting in regard to the report of the
Chief Executive - Director Recruitment, it was noted that Members
had requested a comparison between the estimated costs incurred
should the process be administered by internal HR against the
process as undertaken by external recruitment consultants outside
of the meeting.

The Head of HR Shared
Service apologised that she had not sent these figures around but
had undertook to update Members verbally at this
meeting.

Members were advised
that a tendering process had been executed and concluded in
December last year and the consultants Berwicks were appointed.

The Head of HR Shared
Service advised that an advertisement had appeared in the Guardian and talks were still
ongoing with prospective candidates by the recruitment
consultants.

Members considered the
report of the Head of HR Shared Service which related to the Pay
Policy Statement.

It was noted that the
pay policy statement would need to be approved formally by full
Council before the end of March.
Members were informed of the changes that had been made for this
year which included a reference to the legislative changes that
would be introduced from April 2016 relating to compensation
payments by senior staff. However, this
still needs to be worked out as it is quite a complicated piece of
legislation.

In Section 4 –
Monitoring it was noted that the calculation for earnings had
changed this year from previous years following guidance from the
Local Government Association. It was
suggested that the same rationale was attributed to future data and
that only comparators from one year to another are detailed.

It was also noted that
in Section 5 – Trade Union facility time, hardly any
resources had been spent on trade union business. Members were advised that the Council was only
required to report if more than 50% of the trade union
representative’s time is spent on trade union business.

In response to
Members’ questions, the Head of HR Shared Service
advised:-

·
That although the Reward Strategy was last reviewed in 2006, there
were four themes to the Strategy and one of these themes, the Pay
Policy, would be considered by Members in Part II of the
agenda.

·
That the redundancy policy would apply to all members of
staff.

·
Market Supplements are applied to those positions where difficulty
has been experienced in recruiting, i.e. Senior Planners, Surveyors
and Legal.

RESOLVED: That Council
be recommended to agree the proposed Pay
Policy Statement as set out in Appendix 1 to the report of the Head
of HR Shared Service prior to publication on the Council’s
web site.

Voting: For: 11

21.

EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC FROM THE MEETING

RESOLVED: That the public be excluded from the
meeting for the following items of business because of the likely
disclosure of exempt information for the reason specified, having
applied the public interest test:-

RESOLVED: That the public be
excluded from the meeting for the following items of business
because of the likely disclosure of exempt information for the
reason specified, having applied the public interest test:-

Members considered the
exempt report of the Chief Executive on the Pay Scale Changes which
addressed the level of minimum pay to be adopted by the
Council.

It was noted that one
of the changes to have been applied to the pay scale related to the
application of the Living Wage to the lowest grade on the pay
scale. This had been adopted by Members
in 2012.

The National Living
Wage (NLW) introduced by the Government recently would be a
statutory minimum for anyone over 25 years of age. The NLW would be lower than the Living Wage and
Members would need to consider whether its policy would continue to
reflect the Living Wage or match the NLW.

Councillor D Mortimer left the meeting at 10.30 a.m. before the
recommendation was made and voted on.

RESOLVED:

1)
That the National Living Wage (NLW) be adopted as the minimum level
of pay for MBC staff.

Voting: For: 9
Against: 1 Abstentions: 0

Members expressed
concern that they could not fully consider the other
recommendations until further information had been provided by the
Head of HR Shared Service. It was
therefore proposed that the meeting be adjourned until a revised
report could be produced for Members further consideration.

It was proposed by
Councillor Mrs Gooch and seconded by Councillor Cox that the
meeting stand adjourned until the Head of HR Shared Service
provided further information.